U.S.: Seaport, airfields will boost flow of aid

January 22, 2010|By Scott Kraft and Ken Ellingwood, Tribune Newspapers and Kraft reported from Port-au-Prince and Ellingwood from Mexico City.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — U.S. military officials in Haiti said the use of three additional airfields and the capital's seaport beginning Thursday will boost the flow of food, water and medical attention to earthquake victims, while Haitian officials began to lay out plans for housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, said the military has begun using two airfields in the neighboring Dominican Republic and another south of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, which was devastated in the Jan. 12 quake.

Those extra airports are aimed at taking some of the burden from the Port-au-Prince airport, which has been swamped by aid shipments and military flights since the earthquake. The airport, now run by the U.S. military, is handling 120 to 140 flights a day, but there is a waiting list of 1,400 flights, Fraser said.

Port-au-Prince's seaport had been closed after being heavily damaged in the quake. On Thursday morning, Fraser said it would reopen during the day on a limited basis -- handling about 150 containers daily -- with the arrival of a landing craft with "port-opening" capabilities.

The port should be able to handle up to 250 containers a day starting Friday, when a commercial ship is to arrive.

Seaborne shipments are expected to dramatically increase the quantities of goods and equipment for the relief and recovery effort.

Meanwhile, the government said it would move 400,000 homeless people to tent villages that are to be set up on the outskirts of the devastated capital, Reuters reported.

Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said the first phase would be to move 100,000 displaced people to camps that can hold 10,000 each, the news service said.

Brazilian peacekeepers were already preparing land near the town of Croix des Bouquets, north of the capital, for a transitional encampment on a site where the Inter-American Development Bank had planned to build permanent homes for 30,000 people.

Finding shelter for the displaced looms as another huge challenge for officials and agencies whose global relief effort has focused so far on saving lives, feeding people and treating those wounded.

At least 1 million Haitians are estimated to be homeless. Many sleep under tarpaulins or in the open in scores of encampments that have gone up in parks and empty lots. The encampments are deemed a health risk because of crowded conditions and the lack of running water and proper sanitation.

The International Organization for Migration said Thursday that 447 "improvised settlements" have popped up in Port-au-Prince, holding at least 500,000 people. After reviewing 350 of the sites, the organization said that only three had potable water.

Aid groups and foreign governments continued trying to meet the staggering need for food, water and medical care. Fraser, the Southern Command general, said the military had delivered 1.4 million bottles of water and more than 700,000 meal rations to Haitian victims.